Feds extend duration of eagle-take permits

Over the objections of environmental groups, the federal government agreed Friday to issue eagle-take permits to wind companies for 30 years, instead of five. The permits allow companies to kill a certain number of eagles without penalty, while requiring additional mitigation and conservation measures.

Industry lobbied for the change, saying that the short permits left too much uncertainty when planning major projects.

Environmental groups strongly oppose the longer timeframes. Audubon Rockies Director Brian Rutledge says we just don’t know enough about the interactions between wind farms and birds to be making commitments 30 years out.

“The heart of our objection is the loss of eagles at a rate that no one can project and with a minimum of ability to respond even with what mitigation for the loss will be,” Rutledge says.

But in a recent interview with WPR, Fish and Wildlife Service Migratory Bird Division Chief Casey Stemler said if there are problems, the agency isn’t just going to let them slide.

“We’re certainly going to have a conversation with that company to say ‘okay, whoa, what do we got going on here?’ It’s not something that we just issue and walk away from. There’s going to be consistent monitoring from the Fish and Wildlife Service throughout whatever the tenure of the permit might be,” he says.

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The federal government is getting ready to issue its first eagle-take permit for a wind power project in Wyoming.

Normally, killing eagles is illegal. But the five-year permits allow wind companies to kill a certain number of eagles without penalty.

The Power Company of Wyoming hasn’t actually applied for a permit for its Chokecherry-Sierra Madre wind project in Carbon County yet, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has started asking for public input in anticipation that it will.

A smartphone app that’s trying to raise awareness about conflicts between wind turbines and birds saw a spike in downloads after a settlement over eagle deaths at wind farms in Wyoming was announced last week.

The game is called WingWhackers, and the premise is pretty simple. You’re a protected bird of some kind -- an eagle, an owl, a hawk, and you need to make it home with dinner, through a field of spinning wind turbines.

A wind energy company that was fined a million dollars Friday for the deaths of 14 golden eagles at its Wyoming facilities says it’s making strides to mitigate future bird deaths.

Duke Energy spokeswoman Tammie McGee says Duke has removed rock piles that can attract prey and employs field biologists who send out alerts if turbines need to be shut down. She says they’re also working to install a radar system.

Wyoming wind farms have killed more than 30 eagles in the last five years, according to a new study by several U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists. That’s more than any state except for California -- and that’s despite Wyoming having relatively few wind turbines.